


Virtue

by lonewolf255



Category: Markiplier (YouTube RPF), Rooster Teeth/Achievement Hunter RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe - Video Game World, F/M, Virtual Reality, YouTube
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-04-07
Updated: 2015-04-08
Packaged: 2018-03-21 17:13:03
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 6,129
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3700481
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lonewolf255/pseuds/lonewolf255
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>My sister and I have been working to get our gaming channel, The Punny Pandettes, more popular on YouTube. Recently, we’ve seen a huge increase in subscribers and video views, which explains the contents of the letter from Virtue Corp. Virtue Corporation is the world’s largest virtual reality video game research. And according to their letter, they wanted us for an exclusive virtual reality alpha testing experience!</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Virtue

There is an excited buzz filling the room as more alpha-testers crowd in. If I remember correctly, there should be one hundred of us here; one hundred gamers carefully selected out of the vast majority of gaming channel owners and games testers. I heard that Pewdiepie himself might be here, if he accepted his invitation.

I jump up a little in surprise as my sister leans over to me unexpectedly. “Markiplier! I think I see Markiplier!” she hisses into my ear, nodding her head in a right-jerking motion. I can’t stop a grin from spreading across my face.

“What should we do, should we do something? What do we do?!” I reply in an excited half-whisper. Shan shrugs, in her usual state of agitated excitement. We had to say something to him, didn’t we? How could we not say hello to the man that had inspired us to start our YouTube channel, the sole reason we were here in the first place.

My sister and I have been working to get our gaming channel, The Punny Pandettes, more popular on YouTube. Recently, we’ve seen a huge increase in subscribers and video views, which explains the contents of the letter from Virtue Corp. Virtue Corporation is the world’s largest virtual reality video game research. And according to their letter, they wanted us for an exclusive virtual reality alpha testing experience! I take a moment to reflect on the day we got that letter in the mail.

_I can hardly contain my excitement as I skip over to my sister’s bedroom with an envelope hidden behind my back. “Shan!” I call from the doorway, and watch as Shan’s head pops up from under a cocoon of blankets._

_“Whasit?” she mumbles, half asleep, which I take to mean “What is it?”_

_“Look at what came in the mail today!” I squeak in my excitement, pulling out the envelope from behind my back and waving it triumphantly in the air._

_She squints up at the paper in my hand, frizzy curls falling in her face when she sits up from her bed. “Is it a bill?” she asks, reaching a hand out to take it. I shake my head and hand her the good news. It doesn’t take long for her to come out of her bleary state, once she’s read the contents of the letter over a few times. “This isn’t real. It can’t be. Hazel,” she jumps up from her bed and stands close to me, eyes lit up. “This is it, our big break!”_

_“Dear Ms. and Ms. Thomas,” Shan reads aloud (although I’ve already read the letter myself a few of times). “It is with great pleasure that we invite you to be part of our group of exclusive alpha testers for our newest gaming venture. You will be testing a new game momentarily named ‘Roamer’, a free-roaming multiplayer game where you can battle with friends and virtual beasts. There will be more details about the game, its exclusive headset console, and the testing process if you choose to join us in this exciting new project in virtual reality gaming. To qualify for testing…” She stopped reading to lock eyes with me. “We have to, I don’t care how or when.”_

_“Neither do I. We’re doing it,” I agree immediately. “There’s a number there in the letter that we’re supposed to call if we’re interested.” Before I could finish speaking, Shan already had her phone out to start dialing. “Oh good, because I didn’t want to talk on the phone.”_

_“Yeah I know you,” Shan commented before turning her attention to the phone. “Hello, this is Shantel Thomas of the Punny Pandettes? We received a letter with this contact number if we were interested in…” She paused to listen, then with an excited giggle “Yes, that’s us. We’re interested in joining the alpha group. There are still spots available?” Another pause, then Shan grinned at me, flashing me a thumbs up. “Great, that’s great! When would you like us to…? Oh, so soon? No that’s fine with me, of course, I can go make flight arrangements now after I get off the phone. Oh, ok… Well, if Virtue Corp insists, who am I to argue? Thank you so much! Yeah, see you then.”_

_“So we’re leaving much sooner than we thought, and Virtue Corp will pay our way?” I guess from the snippets of conversation that I caught on my sister’s side._

_“You’re not wrong. They’re gonna fly us out tomorrow, all expenses paid on their side. Start packing, and we can make a quick vlog for our fans so they’ll know we haven’t disappeared, then off to Virtue headquarters in California!” Shan was already on her way out of the room, rushing to find a suitcase. I quickly followed her example._

I’m brought back into the present by the loud blaring over the sound system as the mic frequency intensifies. Even the person that has just taken her place on center stage flinches at the noise. “Oh! Sorry about that guys, don’t know what happened there,” she says with an apologetic smile. A chuckle goes around the room. “Anyway, we’re just about to get started, I’ll wait a few minutes while we all kind of filter in here.” She smiles brightly at us, looking the crowd over with something akin to pride. “Well, I hope that everyone’s trip here was comfortable. You’re all going to be doing something very special for us this week. And we at Virtue Corp. would… Oh, I guess I said that I wouldn’t start up yet, didn’t I?” Another round of laughter ripples through the crowd.

Someone from the back signals an okay for her to start and she nods at them, switching to a more professional, but still friendly, tone. “Okay. I’m sure that most of you are aware of Virtue Corp, right? You all know who we are?”

Shan leans over to me and whispers “Who can call themselves a gamer that doesn’t know about Virtue?”

“Shush, I’m trying to listen!”

My sister gives me a sideways pout. “Hmph, it’s not like she’s saying anything important…”

“-Such an exciting opportunity for you all!” the woman up front proclaims, and people start clapping.

Shan’s eyes widen. “Wait, what did she say?”

I fight the urge to facepalm; my sister… “I don’t know,” I say between gritted teeth. “You were talking to me and I didn’t hear!”

A sheepish grin forms on her face as she starts to bother the person seated next to us; another gamer that’s been gaining a lot of recognition on YouTube lately, but I can’t remember his channel name for the life of me. “Heeeey… I’m sorry, hate to bother you, but… I just couldn’t hear her very well right then, ya’ know? What did she tell us?”

The guy quirks an eyebrow at her (he knows she’s lying) but answers her anyway in a low tone, keeping half his attention on the speaker, lest he makes the same mistake we did. “She was just telling us a few details of the game, that’s all. I bet it’ll come up again later too, don’t worry.”

Shan starts to pester him with more questions, but I nudge her in the arm and nod forward, telling her to pay attention. She begrudgingly complies, muttering to herself about how he didn’t answer her question very well.

I notice his wrist twitch just slightly; I think he heard her.

I shoot a final disapproving look at her before ignoring her and facing the front. “Now you all know a little bit about the game. It’s called _Roamer_ , though the name of the game is still under debate.” She laughs a bit before continuing. “Now that you’re all here, we can talk a little more about the testing. And as some of you must be wondering, what has Virtue Corp. been working on? The letter mentioned a piece of technology in conjunction with the new game we’ve developed. Well…”

She lets us sit in anticipation, motioning for someone to bring her a bottle of water and took a prolonged sip.  Fixing the cap back on, she continued. “We have been working on some equipment that is... akin to a virtual reality experience. Some of you have experimented with the oculus rift…” Another pause, and she smiles like she was about to tell us all a secret. “As a matter of fact… We have passed their technology completely.”

A murmur of awe rises in the crowd and Shan turns to look at me so fast that I think she’s gotten whiplash. She grips my arm tightly. “We haven’t even touched an oculus rift and now we get to pass it entirely!” she squeals in excitement, eyes lit up.

“The way that we’ve configured our system, you will be fully immersed in the game play; you will not only see things as if they were real, you will be literally placed within the world of _Roamer_. Every sensation experienced by your avatar will occur in such a manner as to evoke that same sensation on your person. We’re working on making our equipment smaller and more portable, because at this early stage, our equipment is more equivalent to an immersive chamber than it is a gaming system that you can buy in your local store and fit into your car. But we’re getting there.”

“Everyone please stand now and follow the attendants to our testing lab, where you will be given a tour of the facilities and the equipment that you will be using, as well as another debrief on our concept of _Roamer_. Once the tour and debriefing is over you will receive additional instructions. So go on and enjoy the rest of the day! And remember, ‘Virtue is our goal’! Goodbye, everybody!” Having said the company’s creed, she waves and dismisses us from the room.

We all eagerly crowd around the doors, anxious to get a sight of the innovative tech she has mentioned. In all the commotion I manage to bump straight into somebody. “Hey!” I hear my sister cry out in my defense, and I feel a wave of embarrassment wash over me.

“No, it was my fault. Sor…” I hear Shan gasp beside me and my words die on my lips as I look up into the light brown eyes of Mark Edward Fischbach. Eyes wide, I stutter out an apology as best I can, and I hear Shan doing the same beside me.

He just smiles at us and laughs. “Don’t worry about it; it’s so hectic in here, people are bound to run into each other at some point.”

“Y-yeah,” I say, then recovering myself, start to introduce us. “I’m Hazel, this is my sister Shantel.”

“Yeah, we’re kind of fans,” Shan jumps in with an (almost) manic laugh. “You’re probably the biggest reason we decided to try and establish a YouTube channel.”

“Oh, well I’m flattered,” Mark replies as we all shuffle slowly through the doors, following the crowd. “I think I know you guys; Punny Pandettes, right?” Shan gives him an excited smile and starts speaking at a rapid pace.  I leave the incessant chatting to my sister, having set my sights on who I believe to be Ray Narvaez and Gavin Free from Achievement Hunter. So even they had sent out representatives.

I realize that I will never be able to reach them in time, especially in this crowd, so I let that dream go. Once we pass the threshold of the lobby into the main labs, I forget about them completely. This place is amazing! Not only is it extremely roomy, it has rows upon rows of the immersion chambers that the Virtue Corp. representative spoke of. We are all stunned into silence at the sight (even my sister has stopped speaking with Mark) and an unusual tension fills the air. I wonder vaguely if we will have a chance to try the machines today, though I seriously doubt it. Then again, why else would we be here? A practice session would make sense, wouldn’t it?

One of the attendants turns to address us. “I’m sure you’re all anxious to get started with the testing,” he is interrupted with the sounds of our affirmations, “so we have made sure to give you all a chance to play around in the chambers before you leave for the day. First though, we must speak about the safety measures that need to be taken to keep all of you out of harm’s way.”

“We cannot speak to any of you about how our systems work; still working on getting a patent for it. However, we can assure you with the utmost certainty that you will be in no danger while on your adventure in our virtual world. Though you may feel something, such as a hit from another player’s weapon, there will be a minimal amount of pain, to the equivalent of a pinch and nothing more. The way that you can monitor how much health you have left is through use of your wrist communicator. Your avatar will also be reduced in speed and stamina, so if you experience any sluggish, fatigued feelings don’t be alarmed because it is completely normal. _Nothing felt in this game is permanent to your physical self_. Another thing about your wrist communicator, it will double as your in-game menu. But remember that though the game may be in pause for you; things are still happening around you. So if you’re trying to heal up and contract more damage before you can, the effect is still in play, and you will receive damage once outside of your menu.”

“As mentioned earlier, _Roamer_ has many aspects to the multiplayer settings. You can play as multiplayer cooperatives, or against each other in tournament-style story mode. For the purposes of our test, and to make things more interesting, you will be competing in the tournament-style story mode just mentioned, to test the unique gameplay at work in that mode. So as people are dropped from the system for being eliminated, they will be done with testing for that day and be allowed to return to their provided rooms. Every winner for the day will receive a special prize for being the last one standing, starting tomorrow. Today, however, you will be playing in the multiplayer cooperative mode, which should allow you to familiarize yourself with the feeling of the immersion chamber and how the controls will work, etc.”

I hear my sister whisper to me “Is that what we missed earlier, in the meeting room, do you think?” I purposefully ignore her and focus on the speaking attendant, earning an irritated huff from her. But the attendant doesn’t speak for much longer, just going through the general guidelines, the dos and don’ts while playing, and the procedure to enter and exit the chamber. It almost sounds too amazing to be real; I can’t wait to try it for myself!

“Okay, I think I’ve talked long enough about safety, so before we tour the rest of the facilities why don’t you all select your immersion chamber now? It will be your chamber for the duration of the test. This is due to the process of setting up the chambers to your specific biometric information; of course this will all take place in the background of the program as you will first be spending time on customizing the look of your outfit and general abilities of your avatar. But let’s say that you decide to switch to a different machine after today. That chamber’s system will have to work harder because it is trying to memorize more than one person’s biometrics. It’s nothing that the machine can’t handle, but just to be on the safe side, it would be better to not run the risk. Alright, everyone ready?”

Shan begins to tug on my sleeve and pulls me to a pair of free chambers so we can be positioned next to each other. I lose sight of Mark, Ray, and Gavin as there is a general rush to select a chamber.

Standing next to my virtual immersion chamber, a new rush of excitement overtakes me as we wait expectantly for further instructions. It’s almost time to explore this new virtual world!


	2. Testing

“We’ve made using the immersion chamber as simple as possible! First, you enter the chamber; once inside you will see a seat placed for maximum comfort and a head set in that seat. That headset will not only allow you to connect to the game, it signals to the chamber to begin the biometric scan and starts compiling a default character that you can either keep or modify at the start of the game. The default avatar will look exactly like you, but as any other game, you can change the look of the avatar once you get to the start screen.”

“There is an assortment of beginner’s weapons and armory in your beginners pack as well, so pick and choose items and abilities carefully, based on what you think you would be proficient in.”

“When the game has ended, the game will automatically switch off. In order to disengage the gameplay before the game has ended, if for example there is an emergency and you must leave before the competition is over, scroll down on your menu to the very bottom; hit disengage and your immersion chamber will switch off. Please make sure that the process has fully returned your senses to your physical self and that the chamber has turned off before exiting. There may be unknown complications to deal with otherwise; it’s just another safety precaution to keep all of our alpha testers healthy.”

“We are almost ready to begin the coop test. During coop mode, you will all be able to communicate using your wrist communicator; just go down the menu list until you see the “contact” option. Select it and a list of each person’s name will appear so that you can choose who to speak to, or you can hit “select all” for a group message. Don’t worry about lag, because our system is large enough to handle your communications. This feature will still be available during the tournament mode, but in limited function; you will only be able to contact those that you decide to align yourself with, if you decide such. Doing so will be simple; just touch your wrist comms to each other and you will be connected.”

“The gameplay will not begin until all one hundred players are finished customizing their characters and are in the world. As such, you will not be allowed to exit the beginning bounds of the map until everyone is present. Also, be careful to make sure that you are happy with the look of your avatar, because the only way that you will be able to change the look again within your time as testers is if you ask one of us to reset your chamber for you; it can be done, it’s just a very time-consuming and tedious process that we would all wish to avoid.”

“Oh, and your comms will flash three times in quick succession to indicate that the game mode will soon be activated. Ok, that should be everything covered! Are you all ready?”

I practically throw myself into my immersion chamber, settling into the comfortable chair provided and fitting the headgear over my face. I sense a tingling sensation as the chamber hums, coming to life and (I suppose) starts my biometric scan. It’s a strange sensation, but it doesn’t hurt.

Suddenly, I’m standing in darkness, just a void. Then I’m looking at my avatar, and it’s almost as if a mirror has been placed in front of me. I smile, and my avatar mirrors me. Deciding to keep my original face, I browse through the different armor, taking time to customize the color (purple of course) and weight (medium-light armor, if you must know) and browsing through the different swords, finally choosing a katana and a standard pistol for my weapons of choice. I choose my proficiency to be close combat, since my sister is and always has been better and shooter games than me.

After some time I’m finally satisfied with my choices and hit “finish” on my wrist comm. Suddenly, I’m standing in a large open field, with most of my fellow alpha testers surrounding me. I’m a little embarrassed that I took so long compared to the others. While we wait, I decide to test out the controls. Except, there are no controls. I tentatively take a step forward, and a wide smile breaks out over my lips.

It’s like I’m actually walking around. I know for a fact that right now I’m sitting in a chair with a weird looking helmet over my face, but it sure doesn’t feel that way. I feel a light breeze rustle my hair and caress my cheek; it’s like I’m standing outside. This is amazing! And it seems that I’m not the only one amazed by the experience.

Pretty soon, though, most of us grow restless and start wanting to actually play the game, experience the coop mode. I look around, and though there’s no way that I can tell without counting, it seems to me that we are all here. Who’s taking so long? Then a thought hits me.

I look around, more wary this time. Shan, I don’t see her. If she was finished with her avatar, she would definitely have found me by now. I’m not sure, but why do I have a feeling that my sister is holding everyone up?

I hear a male voice that I don’t recognize over my wrist comm, which seems to be a general message to everyone. “Ok, seriously, who the fuck is taking so long? I wanna start already!”

More people are coming in over the comm now, talking over each other in irritation. Some people aren’t bothering to use the comm at all, and are muttering amongst the closest people to them. Finally, I decide to send a message to Shan, so I pull up the contact menu, and notice that there’s a strange symbol next to Shan’s name. It looks like a red dot. My face flushes as I realize that I’m right; she’s the one that we’re waiting for, unfortunately. I select her name and speak into my wrist comm in a hushed tone “Shantel, hurry up! Everyone is starting to get impatient!”

Seconds later, Shan contacts me back, whining. “But I’m still working on my armor! Nothing looks good on me, and I think that my weapons clash, and-”

I cut her off with a stern “Shantel!” I hear an indignant sniff on the other end, then a cry of alarm as she apparently messes up on something. Suddenly she pops up (coincidentally) right in front of me. “About time!” I sigh, then stiffen as I notice that she hasn’t moved to turn and look at me yet. She seems to be clutching her face from the way I see her standing. My heart starts beating rapidly as I begin to panic. Has something gone wrong, is she hurt? Why the hell didn’t they test this thing? Oh right… that’s us.

I place a hand on my sister’s shoulder, oblivious to the flashing comm on my wrist. I hear shouts of “Finally!” all around me.

“Shan? Are you okay?” I ask in a small voice. I try to turn her towards me. She finally complies, but still holds her hand over her nose. “What happened, does it hurt?”

“N-no,” she says, but her words sound off, almost like her nose is plugged. I put my hands on my hips and stare at her as everyone around us starts to wander off to start the coop. I’m not moving until I find out what happens, and she knows it. With a sigh, she lets her hand drop from her face. I gasp and feel my mouth drop open. Then I’m the one holding my hand to my face, first to cover my mouth in shock, then to stifle the laughter that threatens to break through. After all, she says she’s not in pain…

“Don’t laugh!”

“What the hell happened?!” I ask through giggles. Shan’s nose is gone. Like, it’s not there. There are two tiny holes there to compensate for the lack of a nose, for her to breathe through, I guess. Shan crosses her arms, and the image of her staring me down sternly without a nose is so ridiculous that I laugh harder. Some people around us are starting to chuckle and getting distracted from the primary coop mission, which I never heard in the first place; I’ll ask someone about it later.

“Well, everyone was rushing me and I accidentally erased my nose on my way out of the customize screen!” she yells, turning red from embarrassment. Only my sister could “accidentally” erase a body part from her avatar!

“You look like an alien! Oh god, I’m sorry!” I chuckle, wiping a tear from my eye. I don’t think that I’ll be able to take her seriously this round. Neither will anyone else. “Come on, let’s find someone to catch us up on what we’re supposed to be doing, we’ve wasted enough time.”

“I’m gonna have to ask one of the Virtue people to reset my avatar, aren’t I?” Shan asks in a nasally voice. I bite back another laugh.

“Boy, they’re gonna love _you_ , Shan!” I snicker.

“Shut up.”

“Hey, excuse me?” I ask, tapping on the shoulder of the person in front of us. The man turns around, who just so happens to be Markiplier again. I’m torn between being excited about finding him again, being eager to see his reaction to my sister’s face, and being embarrassed for Shan, all at once.

“Hey, it’s the Pandettes again!” he declares with a lopsided grin. His eyes glance over at Shan for a split second before training themselves on the ground next to us; I see him fighting his own laughter down. Shan also notices and frowns, quietly sulking next to me. I pat her on the shoulder as if to say “There, there.”

“Hey, so Mark, there was… a commotion and,” a giggle escapes my throat, “we missed the mission parameters. What are we supposed to be doing?”

The ghost of a smile plays on his lips as he motions for us to follow. “Here, I’ll show you.” And so my sister and I suddenly find ourselves trailing behind Mark in a virtual world. I could get used to this.

Everyone else seems to be out of our sight suddenly, and I spot a few of them hiding behind things as if in cover. Before I can ask why everyone is hiding behind rocks and trees like weirdos, a bullet whizzes past, barely missing Shan and I. Mark says something that sounds like “Uh oh,” and we all drop to the ground instantly. What the heck? I thought this was a coop!

“Must be the computer’s drones,” Mark mutters to himself, and he pulls a long-range gun from literally out of nowhere. Shan and I exchange nervous looks. Suddenly, my preference of close combat makes me feel like I’m going to be useless.

“Shan! What proficiency did you choose?” I hiss in a low voice. Shan looks at me as if I’ve grown a second head. Well, I’m not the one missing my nose. “Your preferred fighting style?” I clarify.

“Oh!” she exclaims, finally understanding. “Melee, of course!”

I stare at her; I was so sure that she would choose shooter; if we’re going to team up during the tournament, we need to have both proficiencies represented. “I thought you would pick shooter. One of us needs to be long range, and you’re better at it than I am!” I remind her.

Shan scowls at me as best she can without a nose. “Fine! I’ll change it when I reset my avatar!” she says begrudgingly.

“What are you guys whispering about? Let’s go!” Mark whispers back to us, taking control of our little group. Out of everyone that we’re testing with, I’m glad that Mark has decided to stick with us, even if just for the beginning of the mission. “Our goal is to infiltrate the… um, I forgot the name of the creature, but it’s some sort of hive-like enemy, and we need to infiltrate the base. There’s a hundred of us, but probably thousands of them,” he explains as we start to stand from our spot on the ground.

“Okay, I think this area is clear, guys,” a voice comes in over our comms. “I think it’s best if we break into groups of like ten or so. Ten groups of ten, so that we can cover more ground while still having the protection of strength in numbers. It will be easier to get one group inside and destroy the Benderetti queen, which should win us the round.”

“Makes sense to me. Everyone start grouping up!” Another voice rallies.

“No. It’s a dumb idea. I’m not grouping with anyone.”

“Well. Looks like there will be a group of nine and a loner.” I recognized that voice. I turn and scowl at Shan, who is busy scrolling through her menu as she chatters over her comm. She looks up at me. “What? We’re allowed to use them,” she says in her defense.

“True, but let’s not start a fight over communicators, ok?” I insist. Shan shrugs. Meanwhile there’s more chatter over the comm.

“-hey guys, is there only gonna be one round, or are we gonna play more like this one?”

“I think it’s just this, then we’re going to take a tour of the rest of the building. They need to show us where we’re staying.”

“But what if we finish this round in like five minutes? There’s a hundred of us! It’ll be too easy!”

“Well, this _is_ only a quick trial to familiarize ourselves-”

“OH SHIT! Nope, this isn’t easy, we’re under attack! Oh god, that was scary!”

“Did anyone die yet-”

“You guys ok?”

“Damn!” Shan and Mark say at the same time as we work on finding more people to align ourselves with. Our group is growing pretty fast though; a lot of people recognize Mark.

And as we’re walking through what looks like the beginnings of some woods, we’re ambushed. Shouts of surprise sound around me as we all clumsily rush to get weapons out and defend our position. That’s when I get hit for the first time. A giant insect-like creature rushes me and lands a blow at the same time that I do; we both recoil from the collision. “Ow!” I yelp; it was only a small pinch, just like the attendant said, but it still surprises me. And being this close to an actual enemy is creeping me out. I jab at it with reckless abandon, desperate to be away from it.

Once when I’m swinging my katana back for another hit, I hear “Ouch! HAZEL!” It’s Shan, I must have accidentally caught her on my backswing. I guess they have friendly fire on? Or maybe they can’t turn it off since this is simulating sensations? Getting distracted was a mistake, the Bende-something is starting to overpower me. I notice a sluggish feeling start inhibit my movements and realize that I’m running low on health. Before the creature can attack me again, though, it’s taken out by Mark, who has surprised it from behind.

“Thanks,” I manage to say before another wave comes at our group. It’s too hectic for me to even count how many of us are still here and how many have retreated or moved ahead. I’m still as slow as molasses, and getting worse by the second.

Suddenly I feel myself being yanked away from the scene and pulled to a (maybe?) less dangerous spot. My noseless sister pulls out what looks to be some sort of vial full of vibrant red liquid. “Here.” Before I can protest, she unscrews the top of the vial and forces it to my mouth, making me drink the liquid. It has a peppermint-like taste, and I’m suddenly feeling more alert.

“Was that a healing thing?” I ask; I don’t remember them going over what healing items we had available to us. Maybe they forgot, or are letting us find out on our own.

“Yeah. Everyone got a couple in their starter pack. I want you to hold onto yours for as long as you can,” she starts to scold me, but I cut her off.

“No, you should have kept it for yourself! What if you need one now, and you’ll get dropped out of the coop because you wasted it? I’m giving you mine.” I start looking through my inventory menu (which I’m just now finding) so I can give her a healing potion back, it will hurt my pride otherwise.

Shan is just as stubborn as I am, unfortunately. “No. Keep it. If I need it, I’ll ask.” No she won’t.

“No you won’t!”

Before we can finish arguing about who should get the damn potion, we hear a voice over the comm (the loner, as Shan dubbed him) say “Hey, I got in and killed the Queen.”

Before my eyes, the woods we are standing in starts to melt away, like it’s dissolving from view. There is the dying down of a hum and I wait until it is quiet and I feel my physical presence in a chair (surprisingly not sore) before I lift the headgear off. Didn’t want to disobey the attendant, just in case, you know?

As I step out of my chamber, Shan emerges from hers as well. Her state of perpetual mania is back. “Aw, man, I was hoping our group would get in first! It would have been so cool if we were the heroes! Instead that loner had to go and ruin it. Man, I’m still so hyped up! Hey, let’s go find Markiboo!” I grab her arm as she begins to bound away.

Everyone gathers around the attendants again. Another one speaks this time. “I hope you guys enjoyed that little demonstration of what our virtual reality system can accomplish.” There is a general murmur of agreement. “Now, before we begin the tour, any questions?”

A few hands raise in the air, Shan’s included. One person asks “What would happen if we stayed in the immersion chamber for a longer period of time? This was a brief test, but the actual testing, the tournament will probably take longer, won’t it, since we’re all against each other instead of working together. Will the system be in danger of overheating, like the first generation of the Xbox 360, where if you left it on too long it would get a red ring of death? Will we have to stop midgame to let the system cool?”

Hmm, good question. I hadn’t even thought of that, this is why smart people are here.

“We have thoroughly tested our system’s capabilities before we invited you all for alpha testing, to keep you all safe. Safety is of utmost importance for Virtue Corp. To answer your question, our systems are capable of being on for weeks on end. It would probably be more of a problem if you didn’t turn it off for a month or something. But we have built in a safety measure where the chamber will send you a warning to disengage if it reaches the point of being in danger to overheat. If that warning is not heeded, then the chamber automatically shuts itself down, and you lose all progress on your game. The shutdown will not adversely affect the health of your physical self. Any more questions?”

“Can staying in the virtual world for too long affect your brain in any way? Like, your brain waves might change or something, won’t they? Or your perception of reality could become distorted?”

“Another excellent question! That’s a complicated question with an equally complex answer. To shorten it, possibly, with overexposure. But if a person uses good judgement and plays in moderation, it won’t be a problem. One more question, and then I will start the tour, answering additional questions as we walk. Yes, you, miss?”

The lead attendant drops his head in exasperation while every other attendant looks annoyed as my sister finally asks her question in a sheepish tone. Even I can’t help but take a step away from her in shame.

 “Er… Sorry. Do you think that you can reset my avatar for me?”

**Author's Note:**

> Just a quick note, obviously the Punny Pandettes aren't an actual gaming channel... but it's a pretty cool name, don't you think? ^_^


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